House Republicans Are In Favor Of Ads That Make Your Child Harass You Into Buying Junk Food

Tossing that box of Lucky Charms back on the shelf at the grocery store after your kid tried to sneak it into the cart is going to be a lot harder, if House Republicans have their way. They’re on the side of food companies that don’t want the White House telling them to stop marketing sugary cereal and junk foods to kids.

President Obama’s administration has proposed voluntary guidelines to keep kids from being bombarded with cartoon characters hawking junk food and other marketing attempts to get them to get you to buy them sugary and fatty foods. In order to use kid-friendly marketing, the guidelines would suggest the foods be healthier.

But even though those guidelines would be voluntary, food companies are all up in arms against them, saying the government is going too far, says the Associated Press.

Republicans are helping them out by trying to delay those guidelines with a provision in next year’s Federal Trade Commission budget “that would require the government to study the potential costs and impacts of the guidelines before implementing them.”

See, the food companies think everyone will be super mad at them if they don’t kowtow to the guidelines, and the GOP agrees. Missouri Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, the Republican who sponsored the provision, says she is concerned that the voluntary rules “would lead to extraordinary pressure from the federal government.”

The administration isn’t trying to totally kill off Tony the Tiger, say proponents of the guidelines, just try to urge companies to incorporate more whole grains and cut some sugar.